Account Director (Planning Communications)

Cavendish is all about talented people, delivering excellent results for our clients. We are a multi-award-winning, PR Week Top 150 communications consultancy, ranked No 1 in PR Week’s UK Public Affairs consultancy rankings and recognised at PRCA National Awards 2025 as Large Consultancy of the Year.

Across our 11 strategically located UK and Ireland offices, Cavendish brings together industry-specialist communications to provide integrated solutions for clients and limitless development opportunities for our people.

We believe in sourcing talent from diverse backgrounds, nurturing a company culture that leads to a strong work life balance, and strengthening it by providing great learning and development opportunities.

What you will get from us

You’ll have the opportunity to take your career to the next level, working with dynamic, talented people in a fast paced and expanding organisation. Alongside a competitive salary, we provide extensive training and development opportunities and an industry leading benefits package including:

• A flexible, hybrid working model
• Access to mentorship from some of the best minds in the industry
• Industry leading allocation of paid time off
• Geographical flexibility across our regional offices
• Private Medical Insurance
• Regular social and teambuilding events
• Paid time off to volunteer for a charity

What we are looking for

• A hunger to learn, an enthusiastic attitude and an open mind
• A desire to work at pace, learn by osmosis from industry experts, and deliver consistently high-quality work
• An interest in current affairs and understanding of how local government works
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• A creative mindset

Knowledge and skills

• Strong and demonstrable understanding of how the various levels of government work at both local and national levels
• An excellent understanding of the property, energy or infrastructure sectors and the challenges they face
• Strong working knowledge of the UK planning process and relevant consenting regimes (e.g. DCO, T&CPA)
• The ability to think strategically and develop new business proposals, tender responses and client strategies and engagement plans
• Maintaining and growing a valuable portfolio of key clients across FMGC, property, energy or infrastructure
• Strong inter-personal skills and the ability to work across client and internal teams to develop strong and lasting relationships with clients and colleagues

What you will need to do:

A lead relationship holder for your assigned clients. You are accountable for the effective and profitable delivery of projects and retainers for these clients. You are a key driver of income growth, taking responsibility for developing existing clients and winning new clients for Cavendish. Design and implement proactive marketing campaigns for lead generation. Your specific duties will include:

• Working with multi-disciplinary teams to lead compliant communications campaigns in support of planning and infrastructure projects
• Supporting and leading the effective delivery of current client work including strategy development, tactical delivery, community and media liaison, client meeting attendance, and compiling project documentation
• Helping drive research both in support of individual tenders and pitches and more general campaigns targeted at certain audiences within the I&E sector
• Working with the Directors to analyse the market, develop new offerings and products/services
• Working in a flexible way across projects and teams to provide support in line with client and new business demands
• Building client relationships and identifying opportunities to deliver additional support
• Managing Account Executives
• Help the delivery of marketing efforts of the team and wider business.